New boss Ronan McCarthy can take Cork footballers ‘to the next level’

Sean Powter believes newly appointed Cork football manager Ronan McCarthy will take the county to the “next level”, writes Eoghan Cormican.

Cork haven’t progressed beyond the fourth round of qualifiers since 2014, but Powter is confident McCarthy can bring about the necessary improvement to return Cork to the top table.

“I know the manager, because he’s from our local club, Douglas. He’s very good and I think he’ll take us to the next level, where we need to go,” the young Cork footballer told GAA.ie.

“He’s a very good coach. He took Carbery Rangers for a year and won the county championship with them in 2016 and he brought Douglas to a county final a couple of years ago, as well. He knows what he’s doing.”

The 20-year old says Cork “should take confidence” from having run Mayo so close in the qualifiers and he was enthused by the talent on show during the recent county SFC final.

Ronan McCarthy

“You saw the drawn and replayed county final between the Barrs and Nemo, they were probably two of the best games of the year.”

Having been a key part of the Cork U21 team that reached the All-Ireland U21 final in April of 2016, Powter, a Leaving Cert student at the time, was subsequently drafted into the senior set-up by then manager Peadar Healy.

He was introduced as a second-half sub during the Munster semi-final defeat to Tipperary and was again sprung from the bench during the county’s qualifier wins over Limerick and Longford.

He was awarded his first championship start for the fourth-round qualifier against Donegal and, despite his rising graph last summer, the Douglas native doesn’t believe he was ready for the step up.

“Personally, I probably wasn’t ready for senior inter-county football when I was thrown in first last year, even if I handled it okay. This year, though, I got a full pre-season and I felt what it was like to be a proper senior player.”

Sean Powter

Having initially been put on the stand-by list for the International Rules Series in Australia, Powter was “buzzing” when informed he had made the final cut. His father, David, is a native of New South Wales and the trip to Australia for the two tests will afford Sean the chance to meet members of his extended family.

First up on his radar, though, is tomorrow evening’s Cork U21 football final against Cill na Martra.